REVIEW—Growing your own food and flowers can be fun and fulfilling. My better half has been gardening since she was born. I am just the “hired” help. When the Reencle Gravity electric composter was offered for review, I thought it might make me a gardening hero for the upcoming growing season, so I accepted it. I also thought it would be a great way to repurpose/recycle our food scraps instead of putting them in the garbage. As a first-time composter, let’s see how easy it is to use.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $649.00
Where to buy: Reencle and Amazon
What is it?
The Reencle Gravity is an electric composter that turns a variety of food scraps into compost that will help your plants thrive and flourish.
What’s included?
- Reencle Gravity composter
- 2 Filters
- Shovel
- Compost starter pack
- Manual
Tech specs
Dimensions – 20.6” (H) x 12.4” (W) x 13.7” (D)
Package Dimensions – 15.9“D x 14.7”W x 26.6”H
Product Weight – 24.9lbs (11.3Kg)
Compost Capacity – Recommended 2.2 lbs (1kg) per day, Max 3.3 lbs (1.5kg) per day
Power – AC adaptor
Voltage – DC 24V, 40A
Power Requirements – 95W
Noise Level – Less than 26dB
Chamber Material – PP (PFOA & PFOS & BPA Free)
Certifications – KC / CE / Patent of Microoganism Various certifications for functions(Decomposition, Salt, Bacteria)
Design and features
The Reencle looks like a compact trashcan with a pop up lid. It’s made of dark grey plastic with the logo front and center. At the bottom is a sensor that will automatically open the lid when you slowly walk up to the unit.
There are four touch buttons on the top rim that toggle power, dry mode, purify mode, and open the lid.
Now, let’s take a peek inside the Reencle composter. The interior is a lighter shade of grey and you will immediately notice the metal bar with attached paddles at the bottom.
These metal paddles rotate to mix and aerate the compost.
Back to the exterior of the Reencle, we can see that it has handles on the sides so you can move it from place to place.
The handles (there’s one on both sides) also have a little hook that you can use to hold the included plastic shovel.
The back of the Reencle is where the filter cartridge is installed. The image above shows the Reencle without the filter.
Here’s the filter which contains charcoal to help mitigate any fumes from the composting material in the bin.
The Reencle comes with two filters. Each filter is designed to be effective for up to 9-12 months. You can buy additional filters directly from Reencle for $40.
The filter snaps into place with no effort.
The other consumable included with the Reencle Gravity Composter is a bag of composter starter, which looks like a mixture of wood pellets and dark bits of dirt. It’s really a mixture of microorganisms that will break down your food scraps into compost.
All you have to do is dump the starter bag into the composter and add 60 ounces of water. Then you close the lid, make sure the unit is plugged in and powered on.
The unit will use the built-in paddles to mix the material automatically. It does this all throughout the day without any intervention from you.
Twenty-four hours later, you can begin “feeding” the microorganisms with some carbs and proteins. I threw in some old buns. The guide sheet that comes with the Reencle advises you to only put bread or protein in the composter for the first 2-3 days. After that, you can begin adding your normal table scraps.
Acceptable scraps include meat, eggs, fruit, grains, nuts, vegetables, coffee grounds, loose tea, legumes, cheese, breads, cookies, egg shells, stems, roots, and rinds.
Non-acceptable scraps include bones, seafood shells, pits, plastic, rubber, glass, medicine, cigarettes, and produce stickers.
Reencle now includes a bag of their composter starter 2.0 which allows you to start using the composter within 6 hours of setting it up instead of 24 hours.
You can buy new bags of the regular starter for $65 and the new 2.0 bags are $85. I know that sounds like a lot, but you always leave at least 1/3rd of the mixture in the bottom of the composter, so you don’t really need to buy new starter compost mix unless you fully empty the unit for storage and need to start over.
It was amazing how fast the Reencle Gravity was able to turn my food scraps into compost. I barely have to dispose of (aka trash) now because almost everything that we don’t eat can go into the composter. In the image above, I threw in some old grapefruits (I cut them up first), teabags, and old potatoes (also cut up). The next day, I went to check and only the grapefruit rinds were still visible. Everything else had turned into compost. Then, by the second day or so, the rinds were gone.
After a few weeks, the compost level reached the inside max indicator (white line LED on the left side), so it was time to remove up to a third of the compost to put in the garden. It’s still too early to start planting anything here in Southern Indiana, but by the time it is time, our soil will be ready to go.
Here’s what the “finished’ compost looks like. It is relatively dry, doesn’t smell, and mixes easily with other soil. Reencle recommends mixing 1 part compost to 4 parts soil. They recommend storing the new mixture in a breathable container or bag for at least three weeks before using it in your garden, to pot plants, start seeds, fertilize the lawn, tree beds, etc.
Does it stink?
That was one question that I was concerned about too. And I’m happy to say that the composter (and what’s inside it) does not smell bad at all. But, there is a smell when you open the lid of the Reencle. To me, it smells kind of sweet. The first thing that comes to mind is dates. It probably has to do with the types of scraps that we are putting in the bin, so I can’t 100% say that it smells the same for everyone. We also keep the Reencle in our basement utility room. It’s a small room that always has the door closed, so if there would be an issue with odor, we’d notice it when we go in there and there have been no issues.
Concerns
I ran into two issues with the Reencle that are worth mentioning. The first issue has to do with power. We had a couple of storms that caused our power to go out. We have a Generac whole house generator that automatically turns on when the power goes out, so I didn’t think anything of it. The power was out for over 24 hours with that storm and we had no reason to go into the utility room until the second day. On that second day, when I had some scraps to add to the Reencle, I noticed that the power was off. For frequent travelers that might own the Reencle, I think it would be a good idea to either empty (not use) or connect a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) before going on extended trips.
The second issue is a weird one that I’ve not been able to repeat. Like I mentioned, I have the Reencle in our basement utility room, which is right next to my office. At one point, I kept hearing a weird thump noise every few minutes. I wrote it off as the nearby Camp Atterbury military camp doing maneuvers until I happened to go into the utility room, and the Reencle’s lid opened and closed all by itself when I was in there. I hadn’t touched the open button and I wasn’t close to the unit. Reencle’s support mentioned that something could have triggered it, but I don’t see how that would have happened. I think the power cycling caused the issue somehow. I turned the unit off and back on again and it hasn’t happened since.
Final thoughts
Even though I’m not the true gardener of my household, the Reencle Gravity composter has been a fun gadget to review. I really only accepted it for Jeanne because I knew she would appreciate that we could recycle our scraps to help the soil in her garden beds. But after going through the process and seeing how easy it is, it makes me want to garden a little bit too. Jeanne has graciously agreed to give me one of her raised garden beds, so I’m going to use the compost from the Reencle in my very own garden spot this year and I’ll report back to see how much better (or not) my tomatoes or whatever I decide to grow are compared to plants not using the compost. How’s that for a long term experiment idea? 🙂 So stay tuned! But until then, I am happy with my experience so far with the Reencle Gravity composter. I think gardeners will love it.
What I like about Reencle Gravity composter
- Plug and play
- Easy to use
- Quick composting of scraps
- Not smelly (in my experience)
What needs to be improved?
- Concern with it not automatically powering on after a power glitch
- Cleaning it won’t be convenient since the interior “bucket” won’t lift out
Price: $649.00
Where to buy: Reencle and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Reencle. Reencle did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other gardening gadget reviews!
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The Gadgeteer’s review of the $599 Reencle Gravity composter presents an intriguing paradox in home sustainability tech. While its automated stirring and 48-hour compost cycle solve real pain points (no more manual turning or fruit fly infestations), the product’s complexity raises questions about whether eco-solutions should be this resource-intensive to produce.
Since you are keeping it in a closed room you probable haven’t tested it with cats -I’m wondering if in a more accessible area the lid sensor would be triggered by cats/other mobile pets. Sounds like at least the lid shuts itself after triggering, but this could turn into a cat toy!
Right, it’s in our closed utility room. There is a lock feature that you can set to turn off the automatic small lid opening from the sensor.